Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Multi)
By: Bethesda
IF YOU thought Thatcher's Britain was right-wing, get a load of the Nazified '80s of Youngblood – the latest in the series that kick-started the first-person shooter genre in 1992.
Relaunched in 2014 with the wildly praised New Order (and followed up by Old Blood and New Colossus), marble-jawed BJ Blazkowicz continued his quest of stopping Nazis from jack-booting it across the globe, taking on Hitler’s finest in a stylish jumble of alt-history horror.
Youngblood, however, sees our series star MIA, with his twin daughters, Jess and Soph, heading for Nazi-occupied 1980s Paris to find him. Joining the resistance forces in Parisian catacombs, Youngblood continues the series’ trademark pulpy craic as players unleash heil on retrofuturistic Nazis, 1980s-style.
Developed by Dishonored maestros, Arkane, their Paris is a similarly macabre lesson in world building, teasing Wolfenstein away from the confines of the corridor shooter.
And though not quite as open-world as it thinks (overpowered enemies act as bouncers for later levels), its light role-play and experience upgrades add a touch of class to the venerable blasting in a world ripe for exploration – stuffed with collectables, upgrades and swastika-branded trinkets.
Being Wolfenstein, Youngblood’s combat is immensely satisfying as your eminently killable foes explode into showers of meat. It’s all done in the best possible taste, though, as our German uberlords remain as camp as a row of Tannenbaums.
The biggest addition this time is co-op play. After choosing Jess or Soph (each with their unique skills), your partner weighs in, controlled by either AI or a fellow gamer. Having a flesh and blood companion is infinitely preferable, and there’s a giddy glee to completing tasks together, lending each other boosts or just generally high-fiving each other as you stand knee-deep in corpsed-up Krauts.
While its open-world and co-op play evolve the series for today’s market, the presence of microtransactions is depressing: while used only for unessential cosmetic items, it sits ill with a franchise like Wolfenstein, seen as a bastion of traditional gunplay.
But these are easily ignored in a game that offers plenty of bang for your buck – coming in at around half the price of new releases. With top-notch gunplay, standout humour and wonderfully designed stages, shooter fans worth their salt should Goebbels this up.
And, with a relaxing of Germany’s censorship laws, Youngblood marks the first Wolfenstein released in the country with all Nazi imagery intact – a privilege previously reserved only for 'art'.
